Welcome back to the ongoing saga of Peasant Magic. In my last column, we took a look at the format, and discussed some important deck-building tips needed to win in this format. So by now, you’ve gone out and tried your hand at building a Peasant Magic deck, right?

I’ll take your silence as a yes. I hope your experience was as enjoyable as my first few times playing the format.

But as I promised, today I want to focus on what I think is the best (and certainly, most unique) aspect of this format: common and uncommon cards from every expansion Wizards of the Coast has produced (with the exceptions mentioned last time) are legal. In other words, Unglued and Unhinged are legal expansions in the realm of Peasant Magic. (And until this week, Peasant Magic was the only arena where you could play cards from the Portal sets.)

So what does the inclusion of silver-bordered cards mean for Peasant Magic? Well, for one thing, you’ll probably need a six-sided die. You might want to start studying up on your Magic artists, and fractions. Additionally, there’s at least one card you’re going to want to have extra copies of when you sit down to play in a tournament.

At GenCon Indy last year, I had the joy of sitting next to Peasant Magic creator Rob Baranowski as he announced he was activating his Chaos Confetti. The judges running the event had announced at the start of the tournament that all games had a range of one, which, of course, meant that any other games going on within one seat could be affected by certain cards. The rule was also in place for the Unglued set of “Double” cards (Double Deal, Double Dip, etc.), although it was later determined the rule was incorrect.

I watched, half-amused, half-annoyed, as Baranowski ripped the Chaos Confetti into pieces. Mostly, I was stunned. What kind of Magic player could bring himself (or herself) to tear up a Magic card? It’s something I’ve never been able to do (well, except for that one time when I got mad that the deck wasn’t working. . .)

Luckily, the pieces of cardboard missed my permanents completely. I don’t think Rob was really aiming for them.

The one thing I really like about the silver-bordered cards is that although most of them are the standard run-of-the-mill cards (especially in Unhinged), there are a few notable Peasant-legal cards that can really boost a deck.

Here’s a few I’ve seen used effectively:

Knight of the Hokey Pokey
A 2/2 first striker that never takes damage, if you’re willing to embarrass yourself by doing the long-outdated Hokey Pokey. I kept looking for Knight of the Macarena in Unhinged — but luckily, it wasn’t there.

Mesa Chicken
Like the Knight of the Hokey Pokey, a little embarrassment goes a long way.

Goblin Bowling Team
I once saw a deck that ran four Goblin Lackeys take real advantage with this card. It also had Goblin Bookie (another must-have when using Unglued cards) and Chicken Egg.

Hurloon Wrangler
Believe it or not, this creature can win games. It’s amazing to notice how many people are wearing denim at a Magic event. It’s not something one thinks about very often, but the Hurloon Wrangler can make you want to take your pants off. (I hear that really happened.)

Rock Lobster/Paper Tiger/Scissors Lizard
A 4cc 4/3 artifact creature, that under most circumstances, will be able to attack, unless your opponent figures out what you’re doing and tosses in a couple of his own such creatures.

Ghazban Ogress
This card is a fun counterpart to Ghazban Ogre in a ten-land green deck, (provided of course, you’ve been winning with it).

Booster Tutor
This is one I haven’t yet tried, but I can see someone really intent on winning at a tournament sitting down with two or three of these, a couple of Isochron Scepters, and a booster box of Urza’s Saga. There’s currently some debate among the Peasant Council about whether Booster Tutor should allow its caster to snag a rare card.

Stop That!
My wife loves this card, because I’m one of those annoying players who constantly shuffles the cards in my hand while considering my next play (on her turn, no less).

Framed!
This card has the potential to be broken, and it’s another that’s generating some debate among the Peasant Council because of a deck called ProsTide. Basically, the deck runs High Tide, Prosperity, and some other good card-drawing spells to run the opponent out of cards (most versions include a Feldon’s Cane to ensure you don't deck yourself along the way). With Framed!, as long as all your lands are by the same artist, you can untap them all. It does have potential.

Loose Lips
If you can come up with something very embarrassing, you opponent probably won’t say it. It’s been rumored you can cause your opponent to concede the game with this, but that's not actually true. According to the official FAQ to the FAQ, "the sentence is being used to satisfy another need. Loose Lips cannot force you into making verbal statements that commit you to game actions (although it can force you to trigger Gotcha conditions)."

Goblin S.W.A.T. Team
Yet another Goblin that goes well with the “Lackey Red” deck.

Wordmail
There are any number of long-named creatures that go well with this card, but the best choice also comes from Unhinged — Our Market Research Shows That Players Like Really Long Card Names So We Made this Card to Have the Absolute Longest Card Name Ever Elemental. (With Wordmail, it’s a 27/27.)

Keeper of the Sacred Word
I like to pick the word “Yes.” Can I attack you now? Is it my turn? Do you have X cards in your hand (where X IS the number they have, of course)? It’ll work about ten times before you have to start changing tactics. What’s really fun is to have multiple Keepers on the table, so you can use synonyms.

That’s all the time we have for today, class. Join me again next time when I show some decks that are popular at tournaments, and offer some tips on either finding Peasant Magic tournaments, or starting your own.